Thursday, May 29, 2008

In grade 8 (that's how we said it in Ontario: we didn't know what "junior high" was, except that the kids on Degrassi eventually went to one) I failed my first class. In each of the previous years I had been great at school. And, I don't want to brag (I have a wife to brag for me) but I was smart.

That fall, though, I went into the school year a little distracted. My parents were divorcing, we were moving around a lot, and I just stopped caring about school entirely. For a couple of weeks I stopped going, and a member of the school board came to my apartment to check up on me and bring me in.

One of the classes that I really neglected was Family Studies (home economics to my American friends). I liked the cooking part, and I still do, but I couldn't get excited about the sewing kit project we had to do. I had a Siamese cat kit, but I didn't turn it in.

So I failed. It was only a mid-term report card, but still, I failed that class. I have never been excited about sewing.

Over the weekend while I was away Erin started walking everywhere. She also started going baby-crazy, mauling other kids to kiss them and hug them, and carrying a little baby doll with her wherever she went.

If you look closely you might be able to see that a seam has popped on the baby doll's left ankle.

Daddy? Daddy failed sewing. He wasn't enthusiastic about it at 13, and he's not enthusiastic about it at 30.

And the wound looked substantial enough that I was probably going to just have to amputate the foot.

But I sucked it up, got out one of those little sewing kits that Emily stole from a hotel somewhere because it was small and looked like it was made for kitties, and I performed my first doll surgery.

I didn't do a great job. There's some fluff sticking out, and the edges are raggedy. But in all fairness to me it was sewed on the inside in the first place, before being stuffed, and there was no way I was going to unstuff it to do it the right way.

17 comments:

Good for you doctor...you can come and sew at my house anytime. and while you are at it - can you explain what that big surf board with the legs that fold up under it is doing in my closet? And what about that old fashioned telephone with the flat bottom and plug is? I found it under that pile of shirts on the closet floor??

I have sewed (badly) my share of stuffed animals. In fact, the latest was a mermaid whose tail had a hole in it just about where her 'human' bum would be if she had one. Rachel asked me to fix her to 'keep her mermaid poopies from falling out'. So I did. Now she is losing her mermaid boogers.

Great job on the sewing! Much better than my 8th grade efforts would have accomplished. I've been seeing you on Dad Gone Mad for a couple of months and finally clicked on in. Your daughter is beautiful.

When I was but a girl, like 11 or 12 and with less awesome hair (I know! How's that even possible?!), I was in 4-H, and I sewed a pair of pajamas (Pants AND a top! With decorative bric-a-brac! Or wric-a-wrac. Hell, I don't know. It was wavy piping)that earned me a purple ribbon at the county fair. Purple ribbons are like reaching the top of Mt. Everest for hick girls like me!

Today? Dude, I can't even sew a button on. If someone's loses one from a shirt or pair of pants, we go to this magic place where they sell new shirts or pants. I don't like that to happen very much though, so there's been a time or two where I've used a stapler (shhhh...).

I've got nothing but big respect for you, sir. Did you do that with a slip stitch? You can say you did, it won't mean anything to me if you say it's something different!